The Most Beautiful Day EVER

Fall came pretty late this year, well probably on time for Texas but, I got used to fall actually happening in October in Tennessee.  Ashley has the BEST pile of leaves in her backyard and let the kids play in them for over an hour today.  It took some convincing to get them to leave the school yard but once they saw how huge the pile was they had a blast.  Even if Devin only have it one thumbs up instead of two.  He really loves to push my buttons these days.

  

I took over 100 pictures and got one good one of each of them.  I'm not Shady people.

  

George makes this face every time I get out the camera.  Oh and he says, "Cheese!"  Its the cutest thing in the whole world.

  

My beautiful girl that LOVES to boss her brothers around.

  

And my sweet Graham with a super dirty face.  The cuteness makes up for it though right?

  

The is the best action shot I got, I like it.

  

This pill of a child didn't want to come play in the leaves and guess who didn't want to leave.  He's teaching me patience everyday.  ;)  

  

It was so beautiful out today, so glad we live so close to family and they are kind enough to let us play in their leaves.

  

Caroline even made a pile for the babies.  This lasted for about 10 seconds but they sure enjoyed it for the short amount of time!

Devin's Baptism

Now for the whole reason we went down to Houston, Devin's baptism.  I was a little worried Devin or Shawn would be sick on the day of the baptism but we lucked out and the most important person ended up being just fine.  He was baptized and confirmed by Shawn and Steve and Sheri were even able to drive down from Utah for the special day.  It was the best day we had down there.  It was a very simple program but the spirit was so strong and it was so great to remember that these are the most important things we do here.  The rest of the week didn't seem like as big of a disaster and we were able to celebrate Devin making such an important step in his life.  We are so proud of him!
Afterwards we had a little birthday party for him and he had a ball playing with his cousins and opening a few presents.  We then went and spent the rest of they day with Steve, Sheri, Sandra and Phillip and their kids down by League City.  My favorite day of the trip hands down!

Me and my sweet boy.

I think you can tell we had been sick.  Kind of looks like life had been sucked out of us.  And I have a HUGE head. 

Deion was baptized with another boy from my parents ward, Talmage Bodine.

This picture is just too cute not to have in here.

See we didn't forget his birthday!  

All the cousins at Aunt Sandra's place.  This was such a hit, we got out of the car and the kids said, "I want a house like this when I grow up!"  And Mabel was an honorary Funk for the day.  Its the very least we could do since we got her parents sick.  Sorry!

 

Thanksgiving 2015

I had such high hopes for Thanksgiving this year.  It was going to be amazing.  I was just going to help out with cooking enjoy being around all my family and eat as much pie as possible.  That was the COMPLETE opposite of what happened.  Caroline and Devin were lucky to go down a day early with my dad so they could have extra time to play with cousins.  Shawn and I were going to leave early Wednesday with Graham and George, no big deal.  Then it happened I got a pretty bad stomach bug.  I have no clue from where but Wednesday morning I woke up and the thought of food made me want to... well puke.  Not a good omen for the week.  So I called Shawn and he came home to pack us up and leave and make sure the boys were taken care of.  I then got to spend almost 5 hours in the car driving down to Houston with the stomach bug.  Thankfully we brought a waterproof bag because I got sick in the car twice on the way down.  It was the longest 5 hours of my life, and probably Shawn's.
We finally got to my mom's house and I collapsed on the bed.  I felt so much better the next day, just weak from being dehydrated.  Now Shawn was down, and Graham too.  So they missed Thanksgiving at Bethy's and spent it trying to stay quarantined at my moms.  It was really too bad because the food was so good!  I can't remember the rolls ever being that good. I still didn't feel great so I skipped out on the pies which looked amazing and instead was at my moms trying to keep Graham and Shawn somewhat happy.
Devin in the meantime felt like we had totally forgotten his birthday and had a meltdown at Bethy's while I was trying to help Shawn out. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  I cried because I felt bad for Devin and for getting Shawn sick and missing Thanksgiving, but mostly for Devin.  It couldn't get any worse right?
Well it didn't for us but we then proceeded to get almost everyone else sick.  Poodle then Lindsey, then Bethany then Dad.  Ryan's family was the only one that went unscathed.  We were able to have some fun after all the awful sickness.  We celebrated Devin's birthday and more importantly his baptism on Saturday.  We had so much fun with cousins and grandparents we decided to end on a high and head home that night.  It was the best decision of the week.  Shawn and I talked the whole way home and it was a blast.  It was so good to sleep in our own beds that night.  So it wasn't the best Thanksgiving ever but we will never forget it!

Caroline and Mabel were crazy enough to get into the pool.  It wasn't that cold outside but the water was definitely cold!

We did have some fun and help Reed put her Christmas tree ornaments up.

I even got a cute little Charlie in my pictures!

All those pies just waiting to be eaten and I just couldn't do it this year.  It was sad.  

Veteran's Day

When Caroline was in kindergarten I really tried my best to go to every party, performance, special moment, you name it I was there.  Now three kids later I really try and probe to see how important the performance is before rearranging my schedule.  I've become a little lazy and with George still on naps I don't have a ton of time to get things done while the kids are at school.  Anyways when Graham told me he was singing for Veteran's Day I thought good for you, tell me about it when you get home.  Then when I told him I wouldn't be there he broke down in tears so sad I wouldn't be there.  So I went not too excited and a little irritated I would have to try and wrangle George while trying to make it seem like I couldn't be more happy to be there.  So Graham's class comes walking in the auditorium and he beams when he sees me.  For that a lone I decided it was worth going.  Then the program started and the kids sang "God Bless America" and did the sign language for it as well.  It was by far the highlight of my day.  Graham LOVES performing and did his signs bigger and more precise than any other kindergartener.  I forgot what a big deal these tiny little performances are to kindergarteners.  He felt so special and we sang "God Bless America" about 50 times that day.  It was so fun to see him really trying his best and feeling so big and awesome.  I love my Graham and I'm so glad he guilted me into going.  It was spectacular!

Graham walking in feeling like hot stuff.  

I should also note that Graham was voted most respectful in his class for school. They take a picture with the guidance counselors dog and announce their name over the intercom at school.  Nothing huge but hey if it help the kids feel important and helps them behave I'm on board.  Caroline also got recognized for responsibility earlier in the year.  Alright Devin time to contribute.  Just kidding.

Wax Museum

I'm pretty sure I mentioned a few months ago that I really don't like the amount of homework the school assigns.  I may have been a little quick to judge though.  Yes there is homework every night but the school also has some really great assignments.  The forth grade here is amazing.  The teachers work so well together and the projects they assign get the kids excited about learning.  In November Caroline had the wax museum project.  She had to pick a person she wanted to learn about, write a short biography about them, then memorize a short retelling of their life, and recite it as they are dressed up as that person.  I think my favorite part about the project is that they did most of it at school.  We still worked on it at home but it was integrated into what they were learning at school.  I loved it.  It was so fun to see what kids were interested in.  All the kids were so well prepared I loved going around to see the different people.  

Here is Caroline as Dian Fossey.  She is the Jane Goodall of gorillas.  Caroline did a great job and since Shawn was on call the night of the wax museum Ashley was nice enough to watch the boys so it could just be me and her.  We had a great time and were even able to grab some hot chocolate before heading home.  I love my smart girl!

Halloween 2015

I was so happy a few months ago when I found out Halloween was on a Saturday.  That meant that we could spend it with all the cousins down in Katy.  It had been an a very exhausting week and honestly going down there is a lot of work but its so worth it!  The kids have so much fun with cousins and Shawn and I love getting to talk to adults!  Shawn can even get work done when he needs to so that's also a plus.  But there is definitely not a lot of sleep going on.  We got in Friday night at almost 11.  It rained about half of the time we were in the car, pretty heavily too so we had to go slow oh well.  Friday the kids played, I got to bake, (it was so nice cooking in a proper sized kitchen!) and we went trick or treating of course.  Bethy is awesome and had a spare costume for George when the one I borrowed from Adam didn't fit.  Note to self, never assume George will fit into something Adam used to wear.  Anyways George looked so cute as a baby Yoda and fit right in with Leah and Bethany and Mabel.  We left back for Dallas after sacrament meeting and are already excited to see them again at Thanksgiving.  Caroline cries after every visit, it breaks my heart!  But I"m so glad we get to have so much family time this year, its so wonderful.

Leah and Annie LOVE George.  They were so sweet to him, it was adorable!

See they were always ready and willing to help him.

The babies sticking together. 

See isn't he the cutest Yoda ever!?

Graham rocked it as Peter Pan!

We weren't able to get Ryan's kids in the picture but at least they made it a few minutes later!  That awesome Storm Trooper in the back is Bethy. See best mom ever.  Oh and George loved her helmet!  

And of course we had to trade candy.  I love watching this every year. 

This is my lame attempt at getting a picture of Devin in his Hulk costume.  Caroline went as Hermione again because when she saw the Black Widow costume she was not impressed.  It was a great, although exhausting weekend!